Insert a Signature in Outlook

It is very difficult to think in others’ shoes.

I have been using Outlook Express for years, and it works perfect as an email program. Recently I switched to Outlook because I really want to integrate Calendar, To-do list these sort of information.

However, integration can not happen overnight. Outlook still works mainly as an email program. That is to say, I have not enjoyed the extra benefits from Outlook apart from Outlook Express. When Outlook is working as a replacement of Outlook Express, I have encountered difficulties just because I am thinking in Outlook Express.

For example, how to insert a signature in Outlook? Following Outlook Express’ philosophy, I went to Insert menu and looking for a menu item called signature. No gain. Then I hovered my mouse over every button in toolbars. No gain, either. It seemed no intuitive way to insert a signature, so I turned to Help for help. Now I understand possibly for Office Automation reasons, it is not possible to insert a signature manually. If I want my signature shown in my outgoing emails, I must preset before composing email.

3 steps to achieve that:

1. Make up signatures.
2. In the main window of Outlook, Tools > Options > Mail Format Dialogue, choose signature for new messages, choose signature for replies and forwards. Choose none if you do not want any signature to be inserted.
3. Start composing email. Every email will be inserted a default signature if you choose to do so at step 2, otherwise, there is no possibility to insert a signature later after composing has started. However, you can change signatures by right click on the default signature.

Am I thinking in Outlook’s developers’ shoes? Absolutely not.